Publicity played a major role in the development of the Air Service and the Air Corps. Military leaders used the media to their advantage during these years. Hap Arnold successfully worked with the press to increase support.
Billy Mitchell, the Assistant Chief of the Air Service, highly encouraged Army pilots to seek records and publicity. Weary of funding, he wanted to showcase the capabilities of airplanes and prove to the public that the glamorous machines had a brilliant future in war and commerce.
Gen William "Billy" Mitchell Court Martial
Pilots and crew risked life and limb to gain publicity as they displayed their skills of wing walking, low altitude acrobatics and grueling altitude and endurance records.
Mitchell continued down a dangerous path which led to his court-martial for acts of insubordination in 1925. In the 1920s, he showed the plane’s ability too well when he demonstrated that airplane bombs could sink warships.
Mitchell continually agitated for a separate AF still not using the chain of command. The Navy and Army saw their prestige, roles and budgets threatened, and Mitchell became a marked man. Refusing to stop his extreme demands and accusations, he was finally suspended from duty for 5 years—he chose to resign instead. Losing Mitchell was a loss of genius and imagination for the US.
Air power started gaining momentum when Congress passed the Air Corps Act changing the name of the Air Service to the Army Air Corps on 2 July 1926. The Air Corps Tactical School opened at Maxwell Field, Alabama in the early 1930s allowing training to take place for officers in the highest commands.
Finally, the Air Corps Training Center and Primary Flying School began operations at Randolph Field in Texas. They trained tens of thousands of brilliant Army aviators.
Army pilots continually pushed technology barriers. Ira Eaker developed the process and basic equipment for mid- air refueling. As a member of a specialized team, they kept an Army plane aloft for a showy 6 ½ days.
Jimmy Doolittle, a top aeronautical scientist and great flyer, worked out the first system for blind flying. Doolittle took the terrors out of flying at night and in bad weather by testing the system on himself, in zero visibility without a safety pilot. The lives he saved are beyond counting.
The Air Corps developed new bombers in the mid 1930s which brought an end to the age of fabric and biplanes. New, sleek and graceful all-metal monoplanes were developed but were under gunned and underpowered.
They foretold the direction of US Army aviation. The Air Corps hoped these planes would fly so high and so fast with such heavy defense armament that they would be invincible to counter attack.
Thus, Boeing named the prototype B-17 the Flying Fortress. Arnold delighted in the offensive capabilities of the B-17; he demonstrated this by dramatically intercepting the Italian liner “Rex” 600 miles off the American coast. The stunt backfired on the Air Corps and caused B-17 flights to be restricted to operating within 100 miles of the coast or a distance of 3 days march by infantry.
Hap Arnold continued to move up in the ranks and the advancements in air power would soon be tested again. He was promoted to Chief of the Air Corps in September 1938, and was put in charge of the worlds’ sixth place air force.
In a meeting called the Magna Carta of the AF, Arnold told the Air Corps leaders that the US needed airplanes, not in the hundreds, but in the thousands. He strongly believed it was the only way to stop Hitler.